Please note, due to essential maintenance work on the trust’s IT systems, library computers will be unavailable at these times. See the message below for further details.

‘In order to progress the server 2003 replacement project, Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit IT Services will be carrying out essential maintenance work overnight on Wednesday 16th November from 22:00 until 10:00 on Thursday 17th November.

This will mean that between 10pm on Wednesday 16th November and 10am on Thursday 17th November, ALL of the trust’s IT systems will not be available and you will not have access to any IT systems during this time. This will affect ALL clinical and administrative applications including Extramed Cris, Pathology, Radiology, PAS and shared drives.’

Please contact Lynda Cotterill, Library Services Manager, on 01625 663923 if you have any questions about library computers.

General practice leaders have called on the government and the General Medical Council to correct the “anachronistic anomaly” whereby GP postgraduate training remains unrecognised as a medical specialty in the United Kingdom.

In a joint statement,

GP leaders from the BMA and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) from across the four UK nations said that this recognition was “long overdue” given the rigorous training and examination that GPs undergo.

We now have a section aimed directly at GPs on the library website, currently containing information about resources available, news and useful contact details. We always welcome feedback on content, layout and anything else – if you’d like something added, just let us know using the feedback page!

Please note that the Library and Knowledge Service will not be staffed over this Bank Holiday weekend. You are still welcome to use the books, computers, self-service machine and other resources Saturday to Monday, using your staff badge to swipe into the building out of hours, but there will be no members of staff available for enquiries.

We will be available once again from 8.30am on Tuesday 1st September. We hope you have a good Bank Holiday!

We’d like to welcome 25 new people to East Cheshire who attended Corporate Induction yesterday, many of whom registered with the library. This included 5 new international nurses.

The Library and Knowledge Service is free and available to all of you to use: you can borrow books, use computers, ask for help with finding information for work, do e-learning, ask for training, or just come up and talk to us over a cup of coffee! If you haven’t already registered with us, you can do so any time you’re free!

The Library and Knowledge Service would like to give a warm welcome to our newest member of staff. Anne Webb joins us as Clinical Outreach Librarian, replacing Carole Keeling. Anne will be mainly responsible for staff members based in Macclesfield Hospital, providing e-resource training, evidence searching, support for research and current awareness amongst other services. Why not contact her to find out how she could help you?

All doctors who wish to work in the United Kingdom will have to sit a standard test to determine whether they are fit to practise, the General Medical Council has announced.

The test, called the UK medical licensing assessment (UKMLA), would replace the current Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) test taken by overseas medical graduates. However, UK trained graduates would also be expected to sit the test to gain a place on the medical register.

The Library and Knowledge Service is taking part in 2015’s Learning at Work week:

Are you interested in learning how to use computers from scratch? Amanda Gardner will be providing computer skills training for those who want to start from the beginning, as well as something for those who are a little more advanced.

Do you want to know how to use Athens resources? Carole Keeling will be helping people set up accounts and running basic training sessions.

Do you want to use social media in your job, but aren’t sure how it all works? Steve Collman will be running drop-in sessions Friday 15th May and Monday 18th May to show the basics, plus a little bit more for those who are interested.

The Staff Library’s E-resources librarian, Amanda Gardner, has been for training on how to use Lectora, the e-learning and authoring software. With this she will create new e-learning modules for East Cheshire staff members – keep an eye out for further information!

Last week, all of the public computers in the library were replaced with new ones, containing Windows 7 and the most up to date version of Microsoft Office. Come in and try the new machines today! Feel free to ask for help from any member of library staff if you’re having any problems.

If you work at Eagle Bridge Health and Wellbeing Centre in Crewe and you need help finding information for research, patient care or just to keep up to date, why not drop into the library on the second floor? Steve Collman, Community Outreach Librarian, will be available on the 12th of February all day to give you help and advice.

Welcome to the group of students in the library today, who were learning how to use Sharepoint and databases. The session was run by Elisa Dowey and Abe Ginourie of Chester University. Hopefully we’ll see some of you back soon for further library help and support!

This is just a reminder that East Cheshire staff may access training courses provided at other library venues besides our own here in New Alderley House. This is due to a reciprocal arrangement between ourselves, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital of South Manchester.

Don’t forget for 1:1 training on updating or developing your evidence search skills using the healthcare databases (HDAS), NICE or Cochrane, please get in touch with one of our Outreach Librarians. Contact Carole Keeling if you are based at the Trust or Steve Collman for any community based staff or students.

Extract from BMJ Innovations 2015Feedback drives learning in medical education. More regular multisource feedback would improve appraisal for doctors-in-training in the UK. Trainers currently receive little feedback on supervision they provide to doctors-in-training. Barriers against providing feedback include shortage of time and lack of clear mechanisms to do so.

The Home Intravenous Therapy Service (HITS) is holding an intravenous therapy IV drop in day on Friday 2nd May, 9am till 4pm, in the Clinical and Professional Development Centre, Undercroft Building, Macclesfield District General Hospital.

Insulin safety training is a requirement for all those who prescribe, prepare, handle or administer insulin. To ensure compliance with NPSA safe prescribing of insulin requirements, please can any prescriber, nurse or pharmacist who has not already completed the diabetes.nhs.uk training now do so. Please note the website address to access this learning has changed and can be found at:

*Please note – of the 5 e-learning packages listed on this website, it is the Safe Use of Insulin module you are required to complete.

Each module allows users to log on, complete the course, take an on-line test and print a certificate if passed. There is an assessment at the end with a pass rate of 75% to gain a certificate. Please give a copy of your certificate to your line manager.

If you haven’t done any literature searching for a couple of years and aren’t sure where to start, then contact Carole or Steve and arrange a 1:1 refresher session. They will tailor content to suit your needs – starting with registering for an Athens account to locating relevant journal articles.

Steve Collman, our Outreach Librarian for the community will be visiting Eagle Bridge on 21 August. Whether you are staff or a student, working in clinical or non clinical areas, Steve is happy to meet with you to discuss how the library service might be of assistance.

This is an informal arrangement, enabling people to call in whenever its convenient and have a chat – no appointment needed! Although Steve is equally happy to arrange 1:1 or small group sessions on request.

It’s the perfect opportunity to discuss any queries you may have regarding literature searching, accessing online resources or sign up for Athens.